Overview
Confederating with High Elves is -with the exception of Tyrion as the target- quite easy if you know what you’re doing, and with a little luck and careful planning you should be able to get all 6 Legendary Lords in any given campaign.
Diplomatic relations is key, and you can improve them in the usual ways – but prepare to also spend a lot of Influence and possibly some gold.
The most important thing is to get a Noble ASAP and begin Securing Influence, putting points into Secure Influence and Specialist first (then Recovery, then his yellow tree).
Get diplomatic treaties asap (non aggression pact, trade and military access) with all factions you don’t plan to go to war with (this is mostly situational) but be a bit more conservative with Alliances as sometimes they’ll go to war with each other, potentially messing up your plans.
The fact that you’ll share most enemies will also help, and as soon as you’re able you should be endlessly performing Secure Influence Action anyway. If needed, depending on the target and your situation, don’t be shy of giving them money.
Most of the times the option to Confederate will trigger between 80 and 100+ relations. In the lower range you might need to give them money, while in the higher they will actually pay you to be confederated.
Military strength is relevant but you do not strictly need to be stronger than the target.
Some factions (above all, Eataine) will have an easier time confederating thanks to their starting situation.
Tyrion not only benefits from a bonus to relations with High Elves, but also begins with a Noble that can (and should) immediately begin Securing Influence. Finally, he can also field more armies and go down the Ulthuan Majesty Tree to make confederations easier.
Teclis, on the other hand, has a harder start overall which makes confederations also more difficult.
In case you are unlucky and something goes wrong, anyway, you can always revive any of them with the exception of Imrik.
Once your confederation spree begins, keep an eye on the effects of the -40 Confederation Penalty to relations and begin planning your next one. Depending on the difficulty level you are playing on you might experience some public order issues, but nothing threathening.
Also, especially if you’re playing on Very Hard or Legendary, you will confederate Legendary Lords much faster than you can field them due to the increase in upkeep from Supply Lines. Although other sections in this guide will give you ample suggestions on how to optimize your economy, you will still need to make choices.
Specifics for each Legendary Lord are given below.
Alarielle
The Everqueen will confederate easily.
As of the time this guide is being written, she never loses against her starting enemy (the Cult of Khaine), so don’t worry if things seem to be going bad for her at the beginning.
Confederating her should be a very high priority because she helps to develop, pacify and unify Ulthuan.
In fact once you get her she provides a 10-turns buff to growth, public order and Untainted to the region in which she ends her movement, and also generates 1 point od Influence.
Notice that these buffs are per region, so they add up for different regions in a Province if you keep activating them by keeping Alarielle on the move. Hence you should definitely keep/recruit her after confederating her.
Also, at level 13 she unlocks “Leader of the Court” under the “Tradition Dictates” Tree which provides a +15 relations with High Elves, thus further helping the unification process.
Imrik
the Dragon Prince of Caledor is possibly the trickiest one, because he gets wiped out pretty quickly.
You can expect him to die on turn 20 or even earlier and if this happens, it’s just awfully bad luck. Often, however, he’ll survive a bit more – long enough for you to get him.
Notice that you will not meet him unless you send an Agent his way (do not even bother trying this) OR confederate Caledor first. Go down this route and make confederating Caledor your priority if you want a good shot at Imrik.
In the same turn you get Caledor, open your relations with Imrik: spend Influence on him, give him money if you must but bring relations in the green as quickly as possible and consolidate them with treaties, then spend more (Influence and/or gold). In so doing, when the Confederation penalties to diplomatic relations disappears he will likely be ripe for confederating almost straight away. This might still be a race against time, but it’s all you can do.
Once you’ve got him, choose whether to abandon his holdings (the easier and most comfortable course of action) or try to hold onto them (the more challenging and not recommended one).
Teclis
Despite being an absolute beast (bordering on nigh-invincibility) on the battlefield once he reaches a high enough level, he may prematurely die at the hands of Lokhir Fellhearth and/or Luthor Harkon before you’ve gotten the chance to confederate him.
In most runs, however, you should be able to save and confederate him before that happens.
If you can’t research Maritime Empire quickly enough (which is usually the case), send a Hero (likely a Mage) down the Lustrian Sea to discover him as soon as you can. Once you’ve met him, begin priming him for confederation by improving relations with treaties and by spending Influence.
Losing him is particularly hateful because of how impractical it can be to go down to Lustria and revive him as you’ve got your hands full repelling the Dark Elves attempts to invade Ulthuan.
Another issue is that his starting regions will sometimes be taken over by the Vampire Coast, forcing you to wait and lower the corruption level to the required 70% Untaninted before causing the revolt that will bring him back (otherwise, the rebel army will be a generic vampire rebel faction instead of the Order ot the Loremasters).
Alith Anar
The Shadow King will usually fend for himself long enough, and if you’re lucky his holdings will constitute a beachead from which you’ll bring the war to the Dark Elves.
In any event, you’re going to invade the continent anyway, so it would be relatively easy to revive him even if he got wiped out.
Treat him like any other Lord, just feel free to consider him a lower-ish priority with respect to Alarielle, Imrik (if you want him) and perhaps Teclis, too. Also remember that, being likely at war with Morathi and Malekith as well, you might need less Influence to get in very good terms with him.
Eltharion
The Warden of Tor Yvresse is perhaps in the safest situation of all the Legendary Lords (besides Tyrion, and provided he doesn’t go at war with Tyrion).
Unless he manages to get very strong (which is not that usual) or gets wiped out by Tyrion, you can confederate him at leisure.
Whether he should be a priority is a matter of taste.
He is an excellent commander for a missile-based army, yet he does not provide enough faction-wide buffs to warrant a recommendation for early confederation, nor he can single-handedly change the tide of a battle the way Teclis does.
Tyrion
Tyrion is a different breed entirely.
Due to his peculiarities and starting position, he’ll often have a very high military strength and won’t confederate at around 100 relations like all the others Legendary Lords.
Therefore, when it comes to the issue of confederating Tyrion, there is currently no surefire method.
Generally, to be able to confederate him you will need extremely high relations (in the 160+ range) and a very good military strength.
The only faction that can reliably get him early is Nagarythe, because Shadow Walkers are high tier units that can push your military strength very high, very early on. While playing as Nagarythe, you can recruit as many Shadow Walkers as you can and get Tyrion as early as turn 11 by pumping Influence and gold into him.
For any other faction, the amount of relations needed for a very slim chance of confederating him might easily require the expenditure of too much Influence, which would otherwise guarantee confederations with other factions.
It is possible to “beat him into confederation” by reducing him to one settlement and then raising relations enough to confederate him, but such course of action may be cumbersome and not always comfortable.
As the campaign progresses and you get stronger, you will eventually manage to confederate Tyrion anyway if you keep raising your diplomatic relations with him. It is just much more difficult than other factions.